Shackling as a Form of Torture and Abuse – June 2009

Shackling as a Form of Torture and Abuse – June 2009

“My hands were shackled behind my back with plastic handcuffs. The handcuffs were tight and they hurt… I spent hours with these handcuffs on and suffered greatly because of the harsh shackling. After about half an hour I couldn’t feel my hands anymore. It was as if the palms of my hands were about to get disconnected, severed.”

This report surveys the severe phenomenon of systematically shackling Palestinian detainees and prisoners from the Occupied Territories at every stage of their detention and interrogation. It is evident that this shackling is prompted by clear ulterior motives: to cause pain and suffering, to punish, intimidate, discriminate and unlawfully extract information. Such shackling may even serve the various authorities involved as a tool in dehumanizing the Palestinian detainee under the control of the occupying power.

Such behavior by the authorities, the report illustrates, amounts at the very least to inhuman and degrading treatment, and in specific cases amounts to ill-treatment and torture – forbidden both morally and under the law. They contravene both customary international law and international convention law.
Finally the report illustrates the shackling methods commonly used in ISA interrogations through a number of individual examples. It also provides a medical evaluation of the pain and neurological damage caused by these shackling methods.